Sunday, August 5, 2012

"Of our brethren"

  1. 5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.
  2. 10 And I heard a loud avoice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and bstrength, and the kingdom of our God, and the cpower of his Christ: for the daccuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
  3. 26 And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the aother plates of Nephi, wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our blives passed away like as it were unto us a cdream, we being a dlonesome and a solemn people, ewanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days.
  4. 2 And as athese plates are bsmall, and as these things are cwritten for the intent of the benefit of our brethren the dLamanites, wherefore, it must needs be that I write a little; but I shall not write the things of my prophesying, nor of my revelations. For what could I write more than my fathers have written? For have not they revealed the plan of salvation? I say unto you, Yea; and this sufficeth me.
  5. 24 Yea, I say unto you, great are the reasons which we have to amourn; for behold how many of our brethren have been slain, and their blood has been spilt in vain, and all because of iniquity.
  6. 19 And I, myself, with mine own hands, did help to bury their dead. And behold, to our great sorrow and lamentation, two hundred and seventy-nine of our brethren were slain.
  7. 12 Now, my best beloved brethren, since God hath taken away our stains, and our swords have become bright, then let us stain our swords no more with the blood of our brethren.
    13 Behold, I say unto you, Nay, let us retain our swords that they be not stained with the blood of our brethren; for perhaps, if we should stain our swords aagain they can no more be bwashed bright through the blood of the Son of our great God, which shall be shed for the atonement of our sins.
    • • •
    15 Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us ahide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us bclean thereby.
  8. 13 Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of ahell; and they are brought to bsing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?
  9. 9 But Ammon said unto him: It is against the law of our brethren, which was established by my father, that there should be any aslaves among them; therefore let us go down and rely upon the mercies of our brethren.
    • • •
    15 And it came to pass that Ammon said unto them: Behold, I and my brethren will go forth into the land of Zarahemla, and ye shall remain here until we return; and we will atry the hearts of our brethren, whether they will that ye shall come into their land.
  10. 34 And now, if we do not receive anything for our labors in the church, what doth it profit us to labor in the church save it were to declare the truth, that we may have rejoicings in the ajoy of our brethren?
  11. 16 Holy God, we believe that thou hast separated us from our brethren; and we do not believe in the tradition of our brethren, which was handed down to them by the childishness of their fathers; but we believe that thou hast aelected us to be thy bholy children; and also thou hast made it known unto us that cthere shall be dno Christ.
    17 But thou art the same yesterday, today, and forever; and thou hast aelected us that we shall be saved, whilst all around us are elected to be cast by thy wrath down to hell; for the which holiness, O God, we thank thee; and we also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren, which doth bbind them down to a belief of Christ, which doth lead their hearts to wander far from thee, our God.
  12. 10 And who knoweth but what they will be the ameans of bringing many thousands of them, yea, and also many thousands of our bstiffnecked brethren, the Nephites, who are now hardening their hearts in sin and iniquities, to the knowledge of their Redeemer?
  13. 26 And now, their apreservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous bpower of God, because of their exceeding cfaith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power.
  14. 11 We would not shed the blood of our brethren if they would not rise up in rebellion and take the sword against us.
  15. 11 Yea, even if they should dwindle in unbelief the Lord shall aprolong their days, until the time shall come which hath been spoken of by our fathers, and also by the prophet bZenos, and many other prophets, concerning the crestoration of our brethren, the Lamanites, again to the knowledge of the truth—
  16. 35 And these things are written that we may rid our garments of the blood of our abrethren, who have dwindled in unbelief.
  17. 24 And if it so be that they perish, we know that many of our brethren have adeserted over unto the Lamanites, and many more will also desert over unto them; wherefore, write somewhat a few things, if thou art spared and I shall perish and not see thee; but I trust that I may see thee soon; for I have sacred records that I would bdeliver up unto thee.

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